How to Get the Customer’s Issue Resolved Quickly through Live Chat

July 5, 2017 3:38 am

The trend of customers shifting to live chat tools to acquire information regarding brands, their concerns, etc., is gradually gaining pace. It is vital to know what customers are actually demanding if they are communicating with you through a live chat tool. Recent researches have stated that around 82% of customers connect through your live chat software to have their issues resolved as quickly as possible. People may also have other motives including getting their answers within the first interaction with the agent or preferring to talk with a polite and knowledgeable agent. But as for this blog post, we are only going to talk about the first part.

So how can support teams and companies can meet the expectations of the users when it comes to resolving their issues quickly?

How to sort out the customer’s issue quickly?

Let’s accept the fact: customers are busy people, loaded with a plethora of minor to complex problems throughout their business hours or even at home. If an issue arises in their work that forces them to contact an online agent, trust the question to carry immense importance. Is it possible to acquire a speedy workaround that promises to deliver outstanding customer service each time the customer calls?

The foremost thing of importance is to direct the customer to the right personnel for their particular issue. In cases where large companies have a more diverse customer base to answer, using live chat features such as pre-chat surveys help agents in reading the right problem as per their exact expertise. Of all the responses from an agent, we commonly hear, “I am sorry but we don’t handle this kind of request, however, I will transfer your call to the concerned personnel”. The point is to talk you to an appropriate person who is excelled in dealing with cases suited for your problem.

Still though, the concern is how to shorten the time as much as possible to resolve a customer’s issue. A powerful metric to provide an accurate resolution is the first time response—the time taken for an agent to answer the question stated in the active chat window. This is the initiation point of the customer’s live chat experience.

High response times suggest the customer be answered is experiencing the same time duration as a customer waiting in a call line for their turn whenever the agent gets free. Given the time taken, not to mention the frustration of leaving standing to be serviced, the best live chat software solutions avoid higher response times as strictly as possible to please their customers by providing instant answers to their issues. No one wants their customer base to start getting thinner and move over to your competitors. Taking the customer’s patience level, it is highly likely the same customer will also abandon a live chat conversation if he/she is not answered quickly. Research stats have stated that a response time of around 30 seconds is best for the start of a healthy conversation, while anything crossing the maximum threshold of 1 minute is a big no-no from even the most loyal customers. This will force them to shut down the chat window, and even worse, never opt to trust and contact your company again for their concerns.

In cases, the agent encounters a thick volume of chat requests, proactively provide the visitors an expected time of waiting. This helps the customer in understanding that their time is important. The agent can use the send messages feature to update the customers in waiting time. This allows the agent to apologize the customer for making them wait while providing them a new time for conversation. The point is not to let the customer feel as if they are being neglected while waiting. The customer can now decide whether to wait for the agent to initiate the conversation or chat at the next available time. Because once you have started the conversation, there is only a quick problem-solving solution to offer the customer.

Several top live chat software have the typing indicator feature that helps the agents to see what the customers are typing. This aids them in preparing responses beforehand as they wait for the customer to send their complete message, hence, an overall reduced interaction time.

You can also use the reporting features of your live chat tool to acquire details pertaining to recognizing the trends in chat volume, interaction time duration, canceled chats, and individual agent performance details. All the reporting facts will assist the agent in identifying the opportunities for a better performance and an appropriate live chat channel.

Final words

As stated above, answering the customer queries in a quick and fluent manner may seem like an easy task, but not quite so in reality. Besides all the technical aspects of the employed live chat tool, all the agents in the support team need to acquire a solid understanding regarding the company’s product portfolio and processes. Remember, failing to acknowledge a customer in time of need might result in potential sales opportunity pass by unnoticed.

KatrinaEspencer is author at LeraBlog. The author's views are entirely his/her own and may not reflect the views and opinions of LeraBlog staff. Katrina Espencer is a senior researcher and is constantly researching on the effective ways to improve business sales using live chat software.